Spring Break

  Thursday started March Madness so the plan was to watch March Madness!! That evening we planned on meeting Shawn, Bri, and Lina in Tempe to watch the ASU game. Megan and I would return the truck too. We went down and hit some Tempe spots beforehand. Started at Cartel Coffee and hipster, coffee shop that now brews their own beers. A pretty cool spot! Megan and I split a taster tray of their 4 beers. Really liked their Coffee Brown and their other beers were good too. Of course, had coffee too.
  Next we went to the newer Four Peaks. Really large, production facility with a very nice modern tasting room. Cool place. Yucca Tap Room was next and we always love this dive bar, with amazing beer!! Always seems to be sort of a rough crowd, in a rougher area. But we've never had problems, in fact get along with the people! They had Bell's  Hopslam bottles and Ballast Victory At Sea on tap! We could have stayed here all night, but would have ended up bad. Next we met everyone at Four Peaks on Eighth St. Another favorite of ours and fun once again. Some good basketball games on the good number of TV's!

  Friday, we relaxed ran and watched more March Madness! We kept Friday short, so that we could relax on our last day, get some rest for another early flight and at this point we were tired. Had late lunch with Aunt and Cousin at In N Out. Then we used my Aunt's awesome truck to visit our favorite, AZ Wilderness one more time (3 x's in 4 days!!) and stopped at Whole Foods in Chandler. This place is a few miles from my Aunt's and we love it! If I lived here, I would be here often. They have like 30 taps of great beer and you can fill growlers of most of them. I had a few Ballast Sculpin, one of my favorite IPAs! Didn't want to leave here, but had no choice. So overall, fantastic trip we were able to do a little bit of everything: eat, sleep, run, beer, baseball, sun, family and friends!

Spring Break!!!

  First post in almost a year and a half!! Megan and I took a much needed, very relaxing and fun trip AZ!! We were able to visit some great new spots, and see family and friends. We arrived very early on Tuesday morning, had a 5:45 flight so the alarms were set for 3:00 am.
  We relaxed a bit then decided to take the bikes, both women's of course, and not the lightest of bikes! AZ Wilderness Brewery was about 5.5 miles away and we rode the canal the entire way, just about. It was Taco Tuesday at AZ Wilderness!! So we had tacos and great beer!! Then as we were leaving to head to a brewery in Tempe, maybe another 5-6 miles away, Megan gets a flat tire. Not even 50 yards from AZ Wilderness. It was frustrating but we got through the situation thanks to family!!
  Eventually we made it to another recent opening, Huss Brewery. We fairly tired at this time from the events of the day and they had just opened. We were driving here so just decided to share some tasters. The beer was good, nothing more. The owners and I had very much in common, close to the same age and from Springfield!! Small world! The bartender was cool and so it was a good time. They also had many guest beers on tap.
  Later that evening, Shawn Monk picked us up and we returned to AZ Wilderness!!

 

  Wednesday we had tickets for a Spring training baseball game between the Cubs and Rockies and the new stadium in Scottsdale. We took it easy in the morning, of course both going for our early morning runs! Great weather the whole week!! We took it easy in the morning and Shawn was kind enough to borrow us his truck. Which was a very kind gesture because we had to figure out how to get to the game in North Scottsdale from South Tempe.

  We started at O.H.S.O. nano brewery for happy hour. This place was really cool and was next to the canal and encouraged people walking, riding bikes, with dogs, etc. They even had bike locks and water bowls for dogs to borrow. They had some of their own beers, which are often brewed with locals and some other guest beers. I could hang out at this place!! But we had the game that night.

  Next we stopped at Fate Brewing in Scottsdale to meet some friends before the game. It was also happy hour, they had $5 flat bread pizzas and need to eat so got one. Didn't really think it was all that but needed food! Tried some tasters and they had a couple of good beers and some average beers.

  The game was awesome, the stadium they share with the DBacks was 'big time'! They had Four Peaks beer on tap and Megan spilled her $9 beer as soon as we sat in the grass, instead concentrating more on here $5 peanuts! We left the game and decided to stop by Papago Brewery since we would be passing it. Always a solid choice, but we didn't stay long because it was getting late, but they had a delicious Coconut Coffee Porter!! Well that is Tuesday/Wednesday. Possibly Thursday/Friday later if I get some motivation.